


heaven help a fool who falls in love

by MoonlightBreeze



Series: Whumptober 2020 [20]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Aaron Hotchner Needs a Hug, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, As you can see I have no idea what to tag this, CM needs more tags, Guilt, Gunshot Wounds, Hospitals, Hurt Spencer Reid, M/M, Major Character Injury, Supportive Emily Prentiss, Surgery, Team Dynamics, Whumptober 2020, background jemily, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:21:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27185809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonlightBreeze/pseuds/MoonlightBreeze
Summary: Spencer is shot in the line of duty, and Aaron is afraid to lose the man he's fallen in love with.Whumptober 2020 prompt fic - Field medicineWarnings for gun violence & major character injury within! Please keep yourselves safe. <3Happy ending!!
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Spencer Reid, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Whumptober 2020 [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950094
Comments: 6
Kudos: 115





	heaven help a fool who falls in love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thatnerdemryn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatnerdemryn/gifts).



> Hey, guys! I didn't intend to write for so many fandoms during Whumptober, but here we are. This fic goes with this Whumptober prompt: field medicine. Although, reading this back now, I realise that the field medicine comes into play for like, a paragraph. Oops. Also, this author has no idea how field medicine or any kind of medicine, really, works.
> 
> This fic is for the lovely [Em](archiveofourown.org/users/thatnerdemilyj) who is a diehard Hotch/Reid shipper and was the one who inspired me to write for this ship. Full disclosure, I don't actually ship this, but for Em, there's little I wouldn't write. <3 (Also, I'm trying to expand my horizons, so I'm not just writing Malec, Jemily, Reed900, or Sanvers all the time.)
> 
> Warnings for this fic include: major character injury, gun violence, hospitals & surgery. Please keep yourselves safe, lovelies! <3
> 
> Title of this fic comes from the song Ophelia by the Lumineers. If you haven't heard it, I highly recommend it! It's one of my favourites. (Remember when I said I wasn't going to use song lyrics for titles? Oh, how the turns have tabled.)
> 
> I really hope you like this!! Kudos make my day and comments validate my existence, so please feel free to leave those, if you want :) And, as always, I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
> 
> ~ Em

Hotch saw the unsub’s gun a second too late. His shout at Reid - “GUN!” - was a second too late. When he saw Reid go down, Hotch abandoned the chase and rushed to his partner’s side. 

“Reid, Reid, hey, look at me,” Hotch implored him. “Come on, look at me.” Reid met Hotch’s eyes with some difficulty, light hazel locking onto dark brown. He tried to smile, but it came out a grimace. 

“H-Hotch, I - ” Reid broke off, coughing. A few beads of blood wet his lips, and Hotch’s stomach turned. 

“Shh, don’t speak. Save your energy.” Hotch shed his jacket and used it to apply pressure to the gunshot wound on Reid’s shoulder, taking a moment to brush Reid’s curls off of his forehead. He dug his phone out of his pocket and dialled 911, giving them directions to their location and identifying himself as a federal agent. He had to hope that Reid would hang on until they got there.

“It’s just - just a shoulder wound,” Reid choked out, his breath coming in short gasps.

“Be quiet and stay still,” was Hotch’s non-reply. 

Hotch could hear the rest of the team pursuing the unsub in the distance, and he heard another shot ring out. He ignored it, even though his instincts told him to run towards the sound. He trusted the rest of the team to take care of themselves. Right now, he had to take care of Reid. 

Hotch found himself humming as he worked, keeping steady pressure on Reid’s wound. It surprised him. He’d never thought of himself as someone that was comforting or reassuring during a crisis situation; the one that took charge, sure. Hotch was a natural leader. But this? This was behavior he would associate with JJ, or maybe Rossi. Not himself. 

Reid seemed to enjoy it, if his expression was anything to go by. If his face wasn’t contorted with pain, Hotch was sure he would be smiling. 

He didn’t know how many minutes had passed before he started to hear the team again, making their way back to where he and Reid were at. He did know that Reid’s eyelids were starting to flutter, and his pulse was beating a little slower. Hotch began to panic, gripping Reid’s hand tightly in his own. 

“Don’t close your eyes,” he begged Reid. “Please, god, Spencer, don’t close your eyes. Don’t you _dare_.”

“T-Trying, Aaron,” Spencer choked out. His lips were turning a little blue. Hotch held onto his hand like it was the only thing tethering him to Earth and he needed it to survive. In a way, he supposed, he did. 

“We’re going to get you home,” Hotch promised his boyfriend, even though he was afraid that they wouldn’t. “Jack wants to see you, Spencer, remember? Did you know he won an award for that big science project you helped him with? He’s so excited to show you the trophy he got.”

Spencer laughed, a laugh that was quickly followed by a cough that made Aaron’s heart fly into his throat. He swallowed hard. He didn’t think he could handle it if he lost Spencer, the one good thing in his life of serial killers and rapists and child murderers and a chase that never ended.

But then again, that would certainly make sense, wouldn’t it?

It seemed like everyone Hotch allowed himself to care about in this way ended up hurt, or worse, dead. First the girl he used to date in high school, that blonde that’d wrecked her car senior year, and then Haley, and now Spencer. It was like he was cursed. Cursed to unhappiness, cursed to be a single father, cursed to do it all alone with no one to help when he felt like he couldn’t take it anymore. Maybe that was the way it was meant to be. Maybe this was his fault for letting someone in, for falling in love with a subordinate and breaking bureau rules and allowing himself to _love_ in a way he hadn’t, not since Haley. 

Maybe it was all his fault, and he didn’t deserve this, didn’t deserve _him_ , and he should just stop trying. 

“Hotch! Reid! Are you guys okay?”

Emily’s frantic voice broke Hotch out of his internal monologue, and he yelled back, “Spencer’s hurt!” There was the sound of running footsteps, and then Emily appeared, JJ by her side. Rossi and Morgan weren’t far behind. 

“Did you call an ambulance?” JJ asked, phone already in hand. Hotch nodded, breathing hard. Emily strode forward and placed a supportive hand on his shoulder, stealing a heavy glance with JJ. Hotch’s heart broke with the realization. Of course Emily would understand how he felt. She had someone she was terrified to lose, too. 

The wail of sirens in the distance had Hotch’s shoulders sagging, his bruising grip on Spencer’s hand loosening just slightly. They were coming. It would be okay. It had to be. 

The trip to the hospital was long, the waiting even longer. Hotch tapped his foot impatiently and downed about four cups of terrible hospital coffee, trying not to let his mind wander to all of the worst-case scenarios. 

Emily stayed by his side, a comforting presence in the midst of all the confusion and hubbub. Rossi stood off in a corner, shuffling the cards in his pocket over and over again. It was soothing background noise compared to the beep of pagers and the occasional intercom announcements that were just a bit too frantic for Hotch’s liking. Morgan was sitting in one of the hard, plastic chairs, his head in his hands. No one had tried to approach him yet, deciding it was better to leave that job to Garcia as soon as she arrived. JJ stood next to Emily, her hand securely in the other woman’s. Hotch knew what they must be going through, imagining if it was one of them in surgery right now. 

It seemed like hours before the doctor came out, still in surgical scrubs, to tell them the fate of their friend. Hotch jumped up, squeezing Emily’s wrist tighter than he had ever squeezed anything before. 

“What’s happened?” he asked, and was ashamed to admit that his voice carried a slight tremble. 

“The damage was extensive, but we were able to repair it and remove the bullet from his shoulder,” the doctor said. “Agent Reid will be fine in a few weeks’ time. He’ll need to stay here for the next few days for observation, but after that, he should be able to go home.”

Hotch exhaled shakily, relief pouring over him in huge waves. Tears filled his eyes, and he scrubbed his hand across his face before the rest of the team could see. Spencer was okay. He was going to be okay. Everything would be okay.

“You can see him whenever you’d like,” the doctor informed them. “He’ll be in and out of consciousness but he should be lucid enough to receive visitors right now. Only one at a time, please, so as not to overwhelm him.”

The team all turned to stare at Hotch expectantly, and he managed a small chuckle, despite the circumstances. “I’ll send one of you in when I get back,” he promised them, and headed for Spencer’s room. 

When he got there, Spencer was awake, just as the doctor had promised. His curls formed a dirty blonde halo around his head, and Hotch secretly thought he’d never seen anything more beautiful. He pulled up a chair and sat next to his boyfriend, interlocking their fingers and placing a soft kiss to Spencer’s knuckles. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he said quietly. 

“Me too,” Spencer replied, trying to smile at Hotch but only managing a light grimace. 

“Don’t ever do that to me again,” Hotch breathed, clinging to Spencer’s hand like a lifeline. 

“No promises,” Spencer joked, but Hotch knew he was being completely serious, too. No one in their line of work was ever really promised tomorrow, but he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to try. For Spencer. 

“Can we not tell Jack about this?” Spencer said, wincing a little. 

Aaron rolled his eyes. “He’s a smart kid, Spencer, he’s going to notice.”

Spencer sighed. “You’re right.” He squeezed Aaron’s hand and managed to give the older man an actual smile this time. “Well, can we embellish the ‘I’m fine’ part of our explanation, then?”

“Of course. Always do.”

“Thanks.”

Aaron leaned forward and captured Spencer’s lips in the gentlest, most love-filled kiss he could ever remember giving. “You’re welcome.” The kiss spoke volumes, and Aaron knew Spencer would understand every word he couldn’t say and say them back, in his own unique, beautiful way. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Stalk me on Tumblr](http://moonlight-breeze-44.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Prompts are open, but very slow! Thanks for your patience. <3


End file.
